Chapter One
A stone fountain sits in the center of a town square, a mechanism keeping the water flowing so it doesn’t become stagnant. Several buckets around the edge indicate that it is a major source of water for the people who live and work nearby. Along the outer edge of the roadway itself are several tents bursting with goods. Most of them are full of produce and other raw foods for cooking, though one is selling pies and breads and another has smoked meat and cheeses. It’s normal, or it would be if it didn’t look like all the people had just vanished. "Oh fuck me," a halfling groans as she appears from thin air near the fountain and lands on her butt. A tall tiefling, in the midst of swinging a punch, appears and stumbles into an even taller half-orc. "Oi, watch yourself!" the orc cries. The tiefling grins as she stands and dusts herself off, "I would, but I'd rather watch someone else." They look around, but the square isn’t familiar to them. To the north are trees in neat rows, stretching out into the distance with the mountains rising beyond them in the west. Along the northern edge of the town square are two large buildings. The westernmost one is easily the most ornate building within view. Its exterior is made of well-crafted stone and has a symbol— a crescent moon and river— embossed in the wall above the entryway. The eastern building is made of rougher stone at the base and halfway up the first floor, then wooden walls up to the slate roof. It has a large sign outside of a barrel of alcohol with a large crack in it, pouring into a flagon. The words “The Cracked Cask” are carefully printed above the picture in Common. The main road splits in three directions, northwest, southwest, and east. To the west, another stone and wood building sits, this one with pillars carved to look like tree trunks. Beyond it, on the southern edge of the northwestern road is another building identical to the inn, this one with no sign at all. On the southern edge of the square is an obvious smith's forge sitting out away from the wooden building. The town lies sprawled out to the south, an orchard to the north, and farmland to the west. They’re surrounded by a bunch of strangers, all standing in what appears to be some sort of village square. There’s five decently armed people who seem out of place and confused about how they got here. There are several other people standing around. They look like they might even belong in the town square, commoners of the town itself, except they all look just as confused. The green half-orc straightens her back, trying to look as big as possible. With light strokes, she brushes the invisible dirt from her shoulder pad and checks to ensure her greatsword and dagger are still on her person. She peers over the crowd, and the square, trying to see if this is the place she was heading or something else entirely. Where ever she is, she hopes there's a pub nearby at least. A second tiefling grips the quarterstaff in her hand, looking wild with pieces of the forest she was just in stuck to her long dual-braided dark purple hair. Her large, oddly spiky horns make her hard to miss, along with her sakura-pink skin. She takes a small step back, on edge from being suddenly pulled from the forest she was in and thrust into a group of strangers. She mutters to herself, "Where in the hells...?" The halfling picks herself up off the floor and dusts herself off, hand instinctively going to the rapier at her hip, grasping the hand but not drawing her weapon just yet. She backs away from the strangers and looks around, confused. "Who the hell are you people? Where are we?" The flirty tiefling, though dazed, does her best to recover quickly, signature smirk in place. She's a bit disappointed about the brawl she was in the middle of. She was definitely one moment away from a knockout win. Then again, taking a glance around at the cluster of ladies around her, she can't say she's too disappointed. An elf sits on the ground, confused and wary of the strangers around, clutches her satchel and makes sure all her belongings are still with her. The commoners standing around are looking about nervously at the well-armed people standing among them. "Well as much as I'd love to stay and be gawked at, I've travelin' to do. And a pint to grab." the half-orc says as she starts to leave. The weird horned tiefling makes to leave as well, but she stops. "It's too quiet," she says aloud, noticing how silent it is, stopping the half-orc from walking away. For being the center of a village, it is indeed, very quiet. In fact, other than the people surrounding the fountain, there isn’t a single other person in sight. The stands are empty, the fountain's buckets unattended. "How quiet is too quiet for a town of religious farmers do you reckon?" She looks at the half-orc and grits her teeth, annoyed, "No town is ever this quiet if there are people living in it." The elf approaches one of the more common looking people, "I don't mean any harm, do you know where we are?" The woman shakes her head. "No, miss. This ain't my town... I've never seen it before." The half-orc spins to face the woman, "Say again?" She cowers, "I— I said I don't know where we are?" The flirty tiefling takes a few steps, intent on getting back to her fight, but realizes she also doesn’t know where they are, "Does anyone know where we are?" The woman responds, "I was at home making dinner. I don't know how we got here." Some of the others come closer, agreeing with her. The halfling speaks up, "I just appeared here...I was in another town altogether when I blacked out for a moment and got a little dizzy. Now I'm here." "So... None of you know the way back to Halolis then?" The flirty tiefling asks. Another man pipes up. "What's a Halolis?" She looks shocked, "You know. Halolis. The town just over... well, it's got... uh. I was fighting over there." "Never heard of the place, Tiefling," the half-orc responds, "and I've been all over this realm." "What? What do you mean, you've never heard of it?" "I was on my way to deliver a package to...a friend of my mother's. I don't remember falling asleep, I just woke up here. Does anybody know where we are?" the elf asks the group as she approaches The Cracked Cask in hopes of identifying their whereabouts. "Yep, definitely be needin' that pint about now..." the half-orc says, mostly to herself. A burly man with a load on his shoulder nods at the building with the sign, ‘The Cracked Cask’. "That'n's a pub if I ever saw one." The woman who was talking about making dinner suddenly disappears and the flirty tiefling freezes and looks around them, "Um... did anyone just see where that lady went?" "Don't know, don't care." the halfling states plainly, shoving bread from a nearby stall under her shirt. The crazy horned tiefling, not wanting to hang around the strangers, ignores the current quest for knowledge on their location and heads towards what she recognizes as a temple with the tree-trunk pillars. The elf follows after her, "Hey wait a second! You know that temple?" The crazy horned tiefling continues, not slowing and doesn’t answer right away, annoyed by the attention, "I know of the goddess, but nothing more." "I'm not too religious, but I recognize the goddess of that temple. I figured it might be a good place to go until we can figure out how to get the hell out of here." The halfling tells the elf as she goes with them. The other tiefling tags along, unsure of what else to do. The half-orc, too overwhelmed by everything, heads towards The Cracked Cask. As she walks she throws up her hands and mumbles, "People disappearin', tieflings talkin' halos, what in the world..." As the half-orc steps inside the Cask she notices a bottle of ale is tipped over, a puddle on top of the bar under its mouth. Several plates of food and mugs are sitting out in various states, some untouched, some partially or wholly eaten. Some forks still have bites of food attached. A serving platter lies on the ground, the dishes and food that were on them broken and scattered as if it was dropped from shoulder height. She yells for a barkeep but when there’s no answer, she shrugs and walks behind the bar, picking an unbroken stein from the floor and tries the nearest tap. "Praise the gods!" she exclaims as it flows into the stein and drinks the pint in one swift swig. As she reaches for another, a nagging feeling comes over her. "Gods...All them other travelers made off towards the temple...I suppose I'd best join them. Not like this'll help get me anywhere but drunk..." As she reluctantly leaves her drink and heads towards the temple she places a silver piece of payment on the bar. — The local temple is a simple building made of stone and wood like the others in this area. The pillars are carved to resemble tree trunks. The large center room holds several simple wooden benches, and in the back is a room with simple beds for the clergy. Each of the beds has a simple footlocker chest at the end and a table at the head. The elf and the halfling notice a bookshelf that has a handful of religious texts. They mention gods by the names of Takara, Mirran, Vydea, and Asten, among others. The room is otherwise unfurnished besides the books and seats. There are no people to be found. The flirty tiefling looks around, like she’s never been inside a building like this, "So, um... what's this place?" "A temple," the halfling responds dryly. "Temple of the fertility goddess, Takara." The other tiefling says, distracted by the beds in the back that look like they were recently occupied. "Oh." she says simply, turning from the halfling to the other tiefling. "Fertility, huh?" She smirks mischievously. The other tiefling ignores her completely. "I've seen these names before...not very common from where I'm from but my mother has books about everything. Maybe there's a map somewhere?" The elf searches through the various texts while the halfling looks under and around the beds. The elf soon finds a small scrap of parchment with a map scrawled on it tucked into the back of a book. It shows two roads converging at a place called Bellbury. To the west are names Grimpeak, Clearhall, and to the east, Riverrun and Muyar Harbor. She doesn’t recognize any of the names. "Harbor? Are we near the ocean? If we can get to the coast, we can follow it to the nearest coastal town and find more civilians," she mutters mostly to herself. The half-orc barges in, yelling across the spare room "WELL? 'AVE Y' FOUND ANYTHING USEFUL?" "We haven't found shit, and clearly you've done nothing useful either." The halfling replies, getting up to take a look at the map. "Literally where the fuck are we?" "Watch yer tiny mouth there, halfling. Hate to ruin these boots with ye. Lemme have a poke around..." The crazy horned tiefling walks to the back, the halfling following after her, poking around the chests that are at the foot of the beds. They find nothing but a change of clothes and some wooden religious symbols in each one. "Nothin but prayers and cloth in this holy shack..." the half-orc mutters flipping through some of the books. The burly man from before comes in, looking nervous. "Uhh.... ladies? Just thought you might like to know two more people disappeared and another showed up. Seems you're the only ones with any ideas." "Where are you from?" The crazy horned tiefling asks. "Uh... place called Highsun." "That paper, elf. maybe we can pass it 'round the townsfolk, see if anyone recognizes the names." The elf hands the half-orc the paper and she hands the paper to man, "These places, do you know any of these places?" He glances at the paper. "I uh... can't read, miss." "Ah, the man can't read...should'a stayed at the pub...." "What were you doing before you got here," the elf asks him. "I carry things for the shops. I was carryin' a package for the tailor. You find any answers in here?" he asks. "Just the paper in 'er hand and some dusty prayer books" "I think that means no." The flirty tiefling pipes in. The elf continues, eagerly, "Do you have your wagon for transport here? or any horses?" "No, miss. I just carry it on my shoulder. Ain't got a horse. It's just between buildings in the market." "We're spinnin’ our wheels 'ere. I say we start walkin’ east," the half-orc replies. "Does anybody want to go back to the town and find answers?" The elf asks. The halfling responds, jumping off one of the beds, "I do. It seems there's nothing else here." "I wouldn't say no to a walk with some beautiful ladies," the flirty tiefling winks. The other tiefling rolls her eyes and brushes past without a word. The elf starts heading back towards the cobble road, pocketing the book she found earlier with the paper, with everyone else in tow. The commoners have move to the stalls and started snacking on the goods left behind by the disappeared townsfolk. "Did you find anything in the tavern besides a drink?" the halfling asks. "Looked like a giant strolled through it. Food and drink scattered about...a true mess and not a soul inside." "That's... odd." The flirty tiefling replies. "Aye. Seems like folk in this town are bein' shuffled about same as us. I don't think we'll be findin' any answers here." "Well where do you think we'd find some. And maybe a fight or two?" "There's got to be a reason we're all here in this mess together. I need to get to the top of a taller building, to see if there is any movement around the area," the elf says, looking around the square. "City's to the south of us, more folks to ask about that parchment." “Standing here talking about it won't help either," the other tiefling says and steps a few feet away to check out the stone building with the crescent moon on it. The half-orc turns to the flirty tiefling, "Your cousin make a habit out of just wanderin' off?" "My who?" "You're cousins?" the halfling interjects. "Who's cousins? What? Y'mean me and that other tiefling? Really?" she gives the half-orc a pointed look. "Ah, apologies, you all look the same t' me." "I want to walk back to the inn. They might have more information about where we are. And we can ask more people if they've heard about the places on the paper. Does anybody want to come with me?" the elf asks, just as a woman carrying books pops into view near the fountain. The half-orc jumps, "Not something I want to get used to..." The wandering tiefling walks back to the group, reluctant to join them but knowing she should, just in time to see the woman pop in, "What kind of sorcery is this?" "I've read about this kind of projection, but I've never seen it in person," the elf says as she slowly walks up to the woman, trying not to scare her. The woman nervously looks around. "It's a projection?" the halfling reaches out to poke the woman. "Hey!" The woman jumps back. "Excuse me, miss, do you happen to know where you are?" the elf asks the stranger. She rubs her leg where the halfling jabbed her finger, balancing her books in her other arm. "No. Should I? I was in my college's library." "Yes ask the person who just popped up here, if they know where they are." The crazy horned tiefling rolls her eyes. "What college?" the halfling chimes in. "The Mage's College at Paturil," she responds to blank looks. "You wouldn't happen to know how you got here, do you?" the other tiefling asks. "No. Did you bring me here?" "Nah. We don't know how we got here either." The halfling follows with, "No, we all just appeared here, like you did. We're trying to figure it out." The half-orc gets distracted by the delicious looking berry pie sitting at the stall next to them as the crazy horned tiefling heads south, stopping a few feet later to point out the smoke she spotted, "I believe that might be where our answers are." Tearing her eyes away from the food that’s sure to soak up the ale from earlier, the half-orc replies, "Good a sign as any I suppose." "I'll go where the ladies are." "We've got nothing else to work with right now, we might as well," the halfling responds as she follows the giants around her. After a defeated sigh, the elf goes with them. As they walk down the road to the south, they can see the smoke more and more clearly, and it seems to be getting thicker. The buildings are getting simpler the farther away from the center of the town they get. The halfling pipes up, "If we're stuck together I might as well know who you all are. I'm Nera." "Urrak." states the half-orc. The elf chimes in, "My name is Ravaphine, from a small town a ways away." "A pleasure to meet all of you lovely ladies. I'm Brimeia, champion of the pits." "Hey, tiefling, what about you?" Brimeia asks the only one who hasn't spoken. The other tiefling had slowed slightly to travel behind most of them and glares at Brimeia before responding, "Seirixori." As they turn the corner, they see a larger shift in the way the buildings look. All the others have been of the same general style, but here the buildings seem to be haphazardly styled from dwarven to gnomish to everything in between. One of the more gnomish buildings seems to be the source of the smoke. Dark gray and purple smoke fills the air above the flames that are starting to spread from one point throughout the building. Brimeia slows for a moment as she walks. "I feel hungry. Or sick. I'm not sure which." Ravaphine slows as well, "The smoke's getting thicker. I'm getting a bad feeling about this. Everyone stay close." Ravaphine spots where the flames are coming from and a nearby water source. "Everyone, there's a fountain. We should grab a bucket of water and try to put the flames out!" She walks to the fountain and takes a bucket of water. Urrak follows along, scooping up two buckets at once "Form a chain." Brimeia and Seirixori take up position, Nera helping to fill the buckets and hand them off to the heroic souls throwing water at the fire. Ravaphine gets as close as she can, trying not to inhale the strange purple smoke, and throws the first bucket of water. As she throws, she over estimates how heavy it is and it catches her off balance, her arm singing against some of the burning wood. Brimeia, who was following close behind with a bucket, turns toward the elf with concern. "Are you alright?" "MOTHERFUCKINGGODSHITFUCKDAMNFUCKWHY!?" "Surprisingly clumsy for an elf," Urrak states. "Hey I don't see you getting that close to the flames, you beefcake." "Because getting close to flames is obviously something you should do." Seirixori replies sarcastically. "I could take a look at that for you", Brimeia smiles at Ravaphine. Urrak pushes Ravaphine aside, "I'll show you how an orc handles things." She takes the bucket of water she has in her hands and throws it towards the flames... the entire bucket. The bucket hits the closed door, but goes straight through, splintering the charred wood. "A true orc never admits failure. I do believe however, that these flames are insurmountable." "That's a big word for an orc." says Nera. Brimeia looks confused, "Insur--what?" "I'll make you into a fine coin purse once we're out of this mess, halfling." "You will do no such thing, orc." Seirixori growls. Ravaphine rolls her eyes and grabs the next bucket of water to throw into the flames, standing further away this time. Ravaphine manages to quench all the flames at the the doorway, revealing the hole Urrak created, as well as more fire. Brimeia leaps forward in excitement at being able to do something and kicks at the remains of the door. It flies off its hinges into the flames beyond it. "Aha! Now that's more like it!" Urrak cheers. "There's no repairing that." Seirixori says as she watches it burn. Ravaphine replies, "I hope they have homeowners insurance." "Did we need it?" Brimeia questions. "It doesn't matter now," Seirixori says. The flames look like they've gutted most of the house already, but they're mostly only in one area now. The rest of it is charcoal and crumbled wood. The flames in the center seem to be sparking purple inside the yellow and orange flames you'd expect. Brimeia takes a good look at the flames, "That's a strange looking fire." “It’s just fire, nothin’ strange about it.” Urrak responds. Seirixori and Nera step closer to the flames, Nera notices the sparking is coming from a hole in the floor and the flames are at the edges of the hole, like a ring around the sparking. "Let's get this damn fire out." "Everyone grab a bucket!" Urrak runs to grab and fill a bucket, she returns soon after to throw the water on the fire, soon everyone does the same. After some time, tired, dirty, and smelling vaguely of smoke, they finally manage to get the flames out. There are a few smoldering embers here and there, but the smoke is clearing. There’s a hole in the floor of the room where the fire seemed to have started. There’s a slightly glowing contraption that occasionally sends sparks flying up through the hole. Brimeia peeks in, "What in the hells is that?" Urrak offers up the halfling for sacrifice, "Nera should investigate." Ravaphine mutters under her breath and flicks her hand and one of the burnt pieces of wood lights up, and she peers into the hole. She gives it a few seconds before shrugging and jumping down. Ravaphine lands easily and can now easily see that she’s in a mage's workshop and a set of stairs leading up to the floor she jumped from. Urrak yells down the hole "You dead?" "I'M ALIVE!" "Whaddya see down there?" Brimeia shouts. "The elf is a madwoman..." "I like her!" Brimeia beams. Nera rolls her eyes and starts pulling rope out of her bag, but puts it away soon after when all she can find is the weakened burnt wood to attach it to. "WHAT DO YOU SEE DOWN THERE?" "Jump down, Nera, i'll catch you!" Nera jumps and lands easily, ignoring Ravaphine’s offer. Seirixori leans over, "Do you see another way down?" Ravaphine takes a quick glance in the corners and spots a set of stairs, however there’s a bunch of debris in the way. "I see stairs across the way! They lead down here!" As the three upstairs start removing debris to make their way down, Nera and Ravaphine take a good look at their surroundings. There’s shelves and benches full of arcane and metallic contraptions and books. Most are in pieces, some half built, some half un-built, some appear to have been blown up. Against the wall on the far side is one of the latter. A huge scorch mark marks the wall in the shape of an archway, but whatever once stood in that space is gone. Only a base remains, about four feet wide and two feet deep, made of a metal that seems to shimmer through the different colors of the rainbow. It all pales in comparison to the body lying near it. They both approach it cautiously. After a few minutes of removing their obstacle, the other three make their way down and join them with Brimeia bringing up the rear, the magic making her uneasy. "Took you guys long enough to get down here." Nera teases. Urrak snorts, "Ain't like you can lift a beam, small fry." There’s a gnome lying face down, robes singed and shrapnel littering his small frame. However, despite the clutter atop the benches, none of it looks like shrapnel from this explosion. The floor is clutter-free. Ravaphine and Nera roll the body over, revealing a metallic object, a foot in length, with runes inscribed on it. The metal shimmers identically to the metal base by the wall. At one end, there’s a hollow end covered in tinted glass, and at the other, a button covered with a flip-top shield to prevent it from being accidentally triggered. Ravaphine studies the item, it’s magic energy familiar to her. She sets it aside, searching for the blueprints she knows have to be around somewhere. The difference between magic and madness is writing it down, after all. Urrak picks up the rod as the others start poking around, not really looking for anything of merit, Ravaphine not explaining herself. "Strangest thing I've ever seen..." Ravaphine finds several hand-written journals on the bench closest to the explosion. They seem to be relatively free of damage, saved by the covers of the books. The loose paper on the table is charred and singed along the edges. She picks up some of the books, Ebedine College of Wizardry is crossed out, ‘Poni’ written in it’s place. They detail the the ideas, building, and testing of many contraptions and machines. Most of them have scribbles and other marks across the entirety of pages. Several say “BLEW UP.” On one page, you see a diagram of what looks like the stick you’re holding. Need a way to control it. A control rod. A button to start it up and send me and anyone I’m touching through. How to direct it? Coordinates? A sensor plate at the other end. What will work? (Try coordinates, names, personal items of people to find) Rod blew out again. I’m running out of the crystals I’m using. Only two left. I think I know what caused it though. Should be fixed this time for good. Success! I managed to teleport back to my room at the college and get my last few books. You should’ve seen the look on that evoker apprentice’s face when I popped in right in front of him. Pale as a sheet! I got the last few components I’ll need for the big test. I still need to figure out a way to direct the teleportation when it’s not a place I’ve been. Today’s the day. Going to try to travel through the dimensional barrier. Eloise has been bugging me, telling me to stop. She doesn’t understand! This could change everything! But you’ll see Eloise. You and that asshole Qarius. I’m going to be famous! "Everyone, I think I found an explanation as to why people have been disappearing and reappearing..." "Well can you get us back, Ravaphine?" Nera asks. Urrak only half hears Ravaphine, mumbling to herself, "Looks to have a switch or button of some sort on it. Oi, wizard! What'll happen should I press this here button?" "I wouldn't flip that switch if I were you. Unless you want to end up in the middle of some rainforest or...dead." "Aye...don't have t' tell me twice..." Urrak hands the rod to Ravaphine, "might be needin' this, if you really know what's happenin'." "Those crystals that we saw, this wizard used them for teleportation. I wonder if I can set up coordinates to send us all back home" Ravaphine gets a closer look at the rod and notices a seam and starts twisting, grinning as the base opens revealing a small, clouded blue crystal that looks like it’s seen better days. "...Is that thing what blew up?" "Looks t' me like it needs a change a' batteries." Ravaphine nods, "Will somebody help me find any writing about blue crystals in these books? We need to find more." "If one must." Seirixori mutters, as she starts to search with the others. “They won't blow up on us will they?" Brimeia asks, not really touching anything, still wary about all the magic talk. "I can't promise that, but we just need to find more crystals." As they search they start to notice something strange about the things in the room. Bits and pieces here and there that look vaguely like they make sense, a clockwork item here, a recharging rod there, but all of them have been tampered with or twisted. They have added parts on them like they were part of an experiment that probably failed if it was ever completed. The additions to the items don’t seem to make any sense. They almost seem random. Each one is different, each time "fixed" by something new. Ravaphine furiously thumbs through the notes to see if the gnome has a written solution about what caused the previous explosions. But it seems like this was the first time the contraption itself blew up. Seirixori spots a small wooden box tucked between some of the books, she picks it up and opens it to see two bright blue, translucent crystals. "I believe this is what we wanted, yes?" She holds out the open box "Those look to be the same kind of crystals that rod used up. What say you, Ravaphine? Switch 'em out and start this contraption? Ain't like we've much else to try." "Would that be wise? It did start this fire, and this gnome is dead." Nera pipes up, "But if this contraption is what brought us here, maybe it can get us back." "I'd rather not die in a magical explosion. Regular ones are fine though." Brimeia grins. Urrak rolls her eyes, "Hand the thing to me and I'll show you how an orc confronts problems." Seirixori growls, "By destroying things?" "I wouldn't trust an orc to take out the trash, let alone with my life," Nera says. "I'd rather us be safe than sorry," Ravaphine says, trying to calm the two strangers. "Either we stand around in a blown out basement lab of a mad gnome, or we get outta here. Magic or no." Urrak replies, "I for one, would rather not be around a corpse for much longer" Brimeia sighs, "Fair enough." Nera groans, "Ravaphine, just fix the thing and push the button, will ya?” "For once, I agree with the halfling." "I think the base is what he was using to teleport? the rod is the trigger," Ravaphine says as she replaces the crystal and screws the rod back together. As she tightens it a loud gasp rings out, “Who in the Nine Hells are you?” Next